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LAWRENCE – The University of Kansas School of Law is the No. 18 “best value” law school in the nation, according to National Jurist magazine.

The ranking highlights affordable law schools whose graduates perform exceptionally well on the bar exam and have had real success finding legal jobs. National Jurist ranked the top 20 schools and assigned a letter grade to the other 33 honorees.

“We are proud of this ranking because it reflects our broader definition of value – one that goes beyond our affordable tuition to consider how well our graduates are prepared to excel in their careers,” said Stephen Mazza, dean of the law school.

KU was one of only four schools on the “best value” list to also appear in the top 25 percent of law schools whose 2013 graduates were hired by the nation’s largest law firms, according to a ranking published in February by the National Law Journal.

“Employers know that a KU Law degree is synonymous with in-depth training and a strong work ethic,” Mazza said. “We also have reduced our class size to better reflect job opportunities in a recovering legal market and launched innovative career placement programs that we hope will only improve our students’ employment success.”

For example, seven students spent two days interviewing and networking in Dallas this week through the law school’s new Traveling “On-Campus” Interview Program, an initiative that allows students to interview with employers in select cities and have all of their expenses underwritten by the law school.

“While on-campus interviews will always be important, new and innovative efforts like the Traveling OCI Program ensure our students have direct access to top employers in some of the most dynamic legal markets across the country,” said Arturo Thompson, assistant dean of career services, who accompanied the students in Dallas. “As we expand the program to new cities, it will place our students on a level playing field with schools in Texas, Colorado and the Washington, D.C., region.”

National Jurist gives employment success the greatest weight in the “best value” rankings. The magazine also looks at a number of other academic and financial variables, including price of tuition, student debt accumulation, bar passage rate and cost of living.

KU law tuition for the 2013-14 academic year for a first-year Kansas resident was $19,623.